Many sensor applications require sophisticated thermal packages for providing heat dissipation and/or temperature control. This is due to the nature of current processors and/or sensor-specific considerations.
Historically, circuit-level, device-level, and system-level techniques have been employed to manage heat dissipation. Cooling techniques can be broadly classified as “passive” or “active” based on power consumption. For passive techniques, power consumption is zero and relies on conduction (heat sink) and/or natural convection. For active techniques, some type of external power is required. A variety of active cooling techniques are available; choice is typically dependent on the application. Active cooling techniques include fans/heat pipe (hybrid), thermoelectric, liquid cooling, direct immersion, refrigeration, and cryogenics.